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POPSEvo Psych "Like other critics, he has no doubt that evolution shaped the human brain. How could it be otherwise, when evolution has shaped every other human organ? But evo psych's claims that human behavior is constrained by mental modules that calcified in the Stone Age make sense "only if the environmental challenges remain static enough to sculpt an instinct over evolutionary time," Pigliucci points out. If the environment, including the social environment, is instead dynamic rather than static—which all evidence suggests—then the only kind of mind that makes humans evolutionarily fit is one that is flexible and responsive, able to figure out a way to make trade-offs, survive, thrive and reproduce in whatever social and physical environment it finds itself in"
15
POPSDoes nurture change nature? Interesting experiments. Mainly in the sense that is conveyed through these experiments. That is, we always have the opportunity to assume responsibility upon our lives.
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POPSExperimental philosophy
In this study, we examined the status of side-effects — effects that the agent foresaw but wasn't specifically trying to bring about. A key question in the existing literature on the concept of intentional action is whether or not people consider side-effects to have been brought about intentionally. the answer seems to be somewhat more complicated. People's judgements seem to depend on what the particular side-effect happens to be. More specifically, it seems that people are more willing to consider a side-effect intentional if the side-effect is something bad than they are if it is something good. Why do we obtain these results? When we switch the effect from good to bad, why do people suddenly have different intuitions about whether or not it was brought about intentionally? Now, data from the study indicate that people blame the agent if his behavior has a bad side-effect but that they don't praise the agent if his behavior has a good side-effect. interesting question.
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POPSPaleofantasy about the future. I really don't get why people fantasize over an ideal past. was it easier, more interesting and stimulating 100 years ago? i don't think so. i would much rather live now and anticipate the now which is to come after... ;-)
23
POPSReverse evolution in real-time These findings provide further insights into the basic understanding of how evolution and diversity are generated and maintained. On the one hand, it provides evidence for evolution happening through changes in the distribution of alleles in a population (so-called standing genetic variation), from generation to generation, rather than the appearance of mutations, from one generation to the next. On the other hand, as Henrique notes, 'It has implications for the definition of biodiversity: some of the 'reversed' flies may be phenotypically identical to the ancestral flies, but they are genetically different. How then do we define biodiversity?' interesting experiments.
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POPSThe blurry line between life, nonlife Twitches of life are showing up where life shouldn't exist. In southern Africa, for example, scientists burrowed 2 miles beneath the earth's surface,discovering bacteria that feed on radioactive rocks. "That's crazier than any science fiction," said Pratt, part of the team that made the 2006 discovery. "This is life that shouldn't be there. Except it is." interesting concept.
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POPSThe brain and us... Now that we know a basis that affects, we can start relating to it. So i welcome these discoveries not as finite, but as a beginning...
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POPSTHE PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS Interesting read. some more: "On the traditional conception of the mind, if you want to study experience, you shut your eyes and you introspect. You look inward and reflect on what is going on inside of you, on the inner show" "To reflect on experience is not to look inward, it is to pay attention to what you are doing, and to the way in which what you are doing is world and situation and environment involving. " "A much better image is that of the dancer. A dancer is locked into an environment, responsive to music, responsive to a partner. The idea that the dance is a state of us, inside of us, or something that happens in us is crazy. Our ability to dance depends on all sorts of things going on inside of us, but that we are dancing is fundamentally an attunement to the world around us. "
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POPSSmart amoebas reveal origins of primitive intelligence "Now they have identified a potential storage device. The amoeba's interior contains a watery sol – a solid suspended in liquid – within a thick viscous gel. The sol flows through the gel like water through a sponge, creating a network of low-viscosity channels. Those channels are strengthened as long as the amoeba continues to respond to a static environment, but if that environment changes the channels gradually break down and a new network appears as the amoeba adapts. For a short while, though, the amoeba retains a “memory” of those earlier conditions."
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